Diablo 3 Armory - Unofficial Diablo 3 Fansite

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20 minutes ago, Aboard the Kraken
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"this is a very peculiar object you found captain" exclaimed Jessica, the ship's mechanic.
"It's over 5000 years old but still functional"

"Can you operate it?" asked Orion.

"For the moment, no. That time you used this to communicate with Michael was sheer luck. I doubt we can do that again before figuring out how" answered Jessica.

"Well than keep on it. I want it operational asap" said Orion before walking up to the star map. He found James and called for him.

"James!" James turned.
"Did you find one yet?"

"Yes captain. I found three ports available to turn in some of the minerals." answered James.
"There is one in Umoja and one in Moria. There is of course, Deadman's Port, but that is too far"

"Alright let's head for Umoja. I have something to do while going there anyway. Let's go Michael" signaled Orion.

"Okay captain. Setting coordinates to Umo..." Michael paused.
"captain! A dominion ship is sending us a transmission!"

Orion stood up.
"put them on screen"
As the screen lit up, Orion smiled at an old enemy.
"Hey Borus. Still smoking that fat cigar?"

"Shut it pirate. I am here to arrest you and your fellow pirate scums in the name of emperor Arcturus. Surrender and follow us nicely, or face destruction" Growled Borus.

"Aren't you tired of chasing us Borus?. You know what my answer is going to be. I'd rather die than surrender" Orion answered.

"Than so be it. May god send all of you to hell" Borus turned the transmitter off and gave orders.
"Deploy seven squads of vikings. We strike first, hard, and fast."

Orion put on his marine suit.
"Acitvate all weapon system in the Kraken. James! Prepare my command center and deploy 3 squads of wraiths and 1 squad of valkries to escort me to the surface. Hold off Borus at the air"

"Captain? Are you sure you got this?" asked James.

"Don't worry James. This will be over in an hour" said Orion, as he stepped inside his drop pod, preparing for deployment at Antiga Prime.

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Present time, Antiga prime surface, Orion's command center
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Orion quickly set up the base. Since they were here before, It wasn't hard to figure out the advantageous terrain.

"Goliaths get ready! Here comes the pain" shouted Orion, as he watched the siege tanks and marines advance to his position. He counted three thors.

"Are squad A through E ready?" asked Orion to a transmitter.

"Yes sir. They are ready at your signal" answered Jessica.

"Good. We will need them very soon" Orion sighed, as he saw the first enemy tank enter siege mode.

Sajuuk was worried. He didn't show it, but that probe made him worried. Not only had Makan gone bezerk around the damn thing, but it kept on growing more and more insuliting, as if running on some sort of feedback loop. He wondered if it was some sort of attempt at humor by the creator, but it wasn't funny.

At the same time, his empoyer also worried him. He had a tap on Redstone, (given how often he raided the planet this was very useful), and the reports were worring. There was only one protoss encampment on Redstone and three things worried him.

One: An unkown object, (vechical?) had been spotted around the encampment. Sajuuk never liked new tech, it tended to make things more interesting. Two: Both a larger number of terrans and Udrask Bulls had gone missing. The miner losses could be explained by the zerg, who had been prowlowing around recently. But Udrask Bulls? Those things wre usless when infested, so the zerg left them alone. And although they were hunted, it was strictly controled. Poaching could only do so much, which left, the protoss?

And finally, the protoss and zerg had not made any move on eachother. That was particullarly worring, as the two forces were ALWAYS at eachothers throats. It's not like the bases/hives were well hidden, the miners knew were both were, although the hive was to powerful to take out, so the miners left it alone. So why weren't the protoss attacking the hive cluster?

Answers ran through his mind only to be dismissed. "The protoss were traitors, no they would still attack the zerg. The protoss were infested, no then they would attack the terrans, and we would have heard of this. The protoss have mind-controled the zerg. No, then they still would have wiped them out." Sajuuk shook his head in frustation. He made a note on the terminal he was working at to investigate his employer more.

Suddenly a nasty thought entered his head. What if that probe decided to hack his terminal, hell the whole ship, and saw the fact that Sajuuk was investigating his creator. He quickly deleted the message, and ordered Captin Soban and Cheif Engineer Kobiaisi to his confrence room.

The two entered, and Sajuuk greeted the pair. "Gentelman, we have a potential problem. Cheif, how easily do you think that probe could hack our system?"

The cheif suddenly looked nervous. "Well sir, you see, the protoss are centuries ahead in technology. I'd say it would take about 1 second for him to hack and take control of the entire system." The chief looked down, as if in apology.

Sajuuk smiled. "Look chief, we have been together since the war. I'm not going to repremend you just because you tell me some race is to advaced. What I will do is ask you to set up manual swithes and backup power for all the primary stystems. Something out of the computer network, so it can't be hacked. Commander Soban, you are to go through our systems and remove any information about our employer, strenghts, history, anything that could be used against us."

"Yes sir, but what do we tell the probe if it asks what we are doing?" The commander replied.

"Just tell him the truth, that we don't trust him and are taking precasions. If worst comes to worst and we have to shut him down, it shouldn't be to hard. But only do that if it is between our lives and its. I still want to finish this contract.

"Understood sir." The two saluted and walked out, and were almost knocked over by an out-of breath quatermaster Karen.

"Sir, before Makan made a go at that probe, he broke into the medical supplies. It looks like he shot himself high with stims so he could go after it. Makan must have had some pests on him from Redstone, for they have eaten through the majority of the supplies!"

"Damn that man, why did he have to go haywire now. I assume you already took care of the pests? Good. Tell the men that we are out of supplies. I guess we won't be spending our cash that we earn on this mission on those no vikings. We will have to get more medical supllies. Damn it! Dismissed, Quatermaster."

The quatermaster left the room. "One more mission. I will not renegade on my honor. One more mission, and then we will have to rethink working for this guy." With that, he began purging his computer.

"For travelling on the very edge of their territory, they appear to be quite careless"

"As is expected from Khalai"

"They may have no cause for caution"

"No cause? It is but a single vessel!"

"We also command only a single vessel"

"According to our scans, they have minimal armaments and relatively light armor. They pose no threat to us!"

"Our scans may be wrong"

"Nonsense!"

"Who is being careless now?"

Silence. Something stirred in the near-darkness. A hand - two thumbs and two fingers - moved and the dim neon green hologram flickered and died, leaving the room completely dark.

"The vessel in question is an Arbiter-class starship, the preferred vessel of Khalai judicators. While defenseless, it has the ability to quickly summon reinforcements and incapacitate enemies via spacetime distortion.

If we are to successfully seize it and those on board, we must approach undetected and incapacitate them quickly. There is no room for carelessness and underestimation... unless you are willing to let a judicator escape."

This time, the ensuring silence was tense and fragile. Suddenly, the darkness receded, losing ground to the brightness of several warp blades.

No room for mistakes. No room for mercy.
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The boarding was swift and brutally efficient. The arbiter, which had been travelling clumsily in the false safety of warp space, was easily torn from its path and towed into normal space. Its combat shields and armaments had been turned off in favor of speed and this made boarding child's play.

Two bursts of energy destroyed its engines and main power crystal, both immobilizing and disarming it. What followed was an effortless take over of the relatively small vessel. Despite their skill, the Khalai guards stationed on the ship were no match for the cloaked Nerazim. The enemies they couldn't see were too good at taking advantage of such a situation.

One by one, the Khalai fell and the arbiter was quickly captured, its bridge and the judicator within being saved for last.

"The doors are reinforced. We cannot break through. Not like this" one of the dark templar said as the group's leader approached. He himself was uncloaked but could see his brethren effortlessly. He shoved his way through the line of Nerazim until he arrived at the bridge's door.

Several scorch marks gave away the failed attempts at breaking through the metal. Ordering the rest of the boarding group to stand back, the dark templar placed one hand on the metal and let his energy flow into it. Unable to store the excess energy, the metal beneath his palm quickly melted and the rest of the door followed.

Not waiting for the surrounding metal to cool down, the lone Nerazim stepped through the door and into a dark bridge. Two protoss immediately lunged at him, their bright blue blades giving away their presence. Before they could reach him, two dark templar intercepted, parried and stabbed them.

Uninterested in the deaths, the leader scanned the bridge, using his own blade as a source of light. The judicator was easy to find. He stood defiantly and confidently in the middle of the room, Khalai to the very end.

"What is your name, judicator?" he asked, his mental voice cold and emotionless.

"Imarun" came the answer "Yours, exile?".

The Nerazim strode towards the Khalai and brought his face close the judicator's own.

"Nedrun" he answered and swung his warp blade, decapitating the protoss. Not a second later, the dark templar behind him moved, as if making way for something.

"It would seem the ship was carrying a guest of honor, Prelate"

Nedrun turned around to see four dark templar carrying a young female Khalai into the bridge. He eyed the one closest to him.

"Why did you bring her here instead of simply killing her?"

"We found her asleep and thought it best to bring her to you in case she is... of value to us"

Nedrun made a barely visible nod and knelt down to stare into the Khalai's blue eyes.

"Your name, captive?" he asked.

"Khanaka. Yours?"

"Nedrun" he answered and swung his blade.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------present time, Planet surface of Antiga Prime
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"back, back!"

"viking 07, get back for repair!"

"Incoming tank fire!"

"Valkyries 04 through 08, go get those dropships!"

As he swooped down to fire a volley of lasers to a siege tank, Orion could hear the radio in his suit jammed with shouts from the battle. He turned around to kill two more medics, when the wraith shook with the impact from a viking missile. Cloaking, he fired his own missiles at the viking.

'dammit, got less than half of energy left' he thought as he glanced at his energy meter.

"Sir! We're getting hammered here by the tanks! What's your order?" James shouted to his radio desperately.

"Hold your position until I deploy the wraiths! We only use them when Borus himself comes out"

"We have about 10 minutes until our goliaths go down!"

"Land the vikings if you have to!"

Orion decloaked, and flew high above the battlefield to get a look at the position. He could make out 6 sieged tanks, about 20 marines and medics, and 5 vikings.

"All air-born vikings engage the other vikings! Show them your skills as part of the Iron Flyers! Remaining goliaths spread out and engage those tanks" As he gave the orders, he finally saw what he had been waiting for. 3 thors marching from the back of the dominion army, one which Borus himself was piloting.

"James you can get the wraiths out now!" Shouted Orion.

"Jesus finally!" answered James as he called in wraith squads A-E.

"All army distract the marines! We're taking Borus down"

Orion flew straight at the thors. He could see in his radar, several of his wraiths moving in from behind.

"Alright, squad B, C, D, and E take down the other two thors. Squad A is coming with me to destroy Borus"
.
.
.
Borus saw the wraiths closing in on him. Exactly what he wanted.

"Duck and Luggage do you have vision on the wraiths?"

"pshhht..Yes we see 'em. Waiting on order commander"

"On my mark, engage those pirates. Ready...MARK!"
.
.
.
Orion saw the javelin missiles heading his way.

"All wraith cloak and take down the thors"

"Roger"

As Orion activated the cloak, he flew down to drill a few holes in the mechanical giants.

"I'm hit I'm hit! Going down for an emergency landing!"

The thors were targeting the wraiths perfectly. As Orion dodged a missile, he yelled at his radio.

"James what the **** is going on!"

"Captain they seem to have disabled your cloaking system! The Prometheus seems to be jamming your consoles!"

"Can you get it back online?

"Not soon enough sir! You'd have to do without them"

Orion bit his lips and fired several lasers at the thors. He saw two wraiths in flames, crashing through a nearby jungle. He spun around and carefully aimed at the join of a thor's leg.

'bingo' He thought as he fired a laser the back of a thor's damaged foot. As the laser hit, the leg exploded and the thor crashed to it's side. He ordered the other wraiths to aim at the arms of the other thor. The arm broke down, causing the canon ammo inside to explode besides the thor, leaving it smoking on the ground. As Orion prepared to fight Borus, he got hit by one of Borus's missiles. He aimed at Borus's limbs, causing the same results as the other thors. He looked back at his grounds troops, and ordered the wraith squads to destroy remaining oppositions. Orion lowered his wraith near Borus's thor, staring directly at his face. behind the shattered window.

"Ouch. Is that a broken arm I see?" smirked Orion. He could see Borus's bleeding arm, pierced by a metal bar.

"Shut it pirate. I'll kill you with my own two hands next time" Borus gritted his teeth at him.

"Sorry Borus. I'm going to kill you right now" said Orion sadistically, and put his thumb on the fire button.

"I'll definatly kill you for sure" Said Borus, and before Orion could fire one more round of laser, he launched himself to an escape pod.

"Orion looked up to see the pod land safely in a dropship, the only dominion troop left, escape to it's flagship.

"James. repair the army and we fly to Umoja asap. We go there, sell the minerals and dominion parts, and hunt dominion ships for a while. I got enough excitement for the week"

The blade didn't hit. Or rather, it barely did. Something had happened. As soon as he had swung his blade, Nedrun had realized something was not quite right. The air around the Khalai was thick, abnormally dense. The space was... distorted?

"Not... sleeping" It wasn't normal telepathic speech. Rather, it felt strained and labored. Now that Nedrun thought about it, her first words had been the same. He glanced from the Khalai's face to her neck, where his blade was. He had swung with full force, fully intent on killing the girl... but somehow, his blade had been stopped, slowed down to the point where it did no harm.

"What?" he said, confused, and stepped away from the Khalai, withdrawing his blade arm as he did so.

"Not... sleeping. I was not sleeping" The words were becoming clearer and the sentences more smooth. Their meaning, however, escaped Nedrun's baffled mind.

"What?" he repeated.

"Your kind may not think kindly of us but do not assume we sleep in stasis fields"

Nedrun's mind was finally piecing together the information. Yes... one of the dark templar had said they had found her sleeping (which, now that he thought about it, was unlikely given the ship had just been torn from warp travel). He had dismissed the information as unimportant and perhaps it was. Stasis, sleep, what difference did it make?

The Nerazim took a step towards the captive, blade at the ready.

"Why were you in stasis?" he demanded. The girl's miraculous escape from death and his own confusion had somehow intrigued him. He wanted to know a bit more about his victim before killing her.

"I was a prisoner of Judicator Imarun and, through him, the Conclave" she answered, not looking at him but instead examining her surroundings. Her speech was now fluent and more complex and this, coupled in with the mention of the Conclave, stirred the depths of Nedrun's mind. Suddenly, he was more aware, his mind more active.

He shook his head as if dazed and looked at the girl, analyzing her. The dark templar had called her a guest of honor but there was nothing there to indicate that. She wore ragged, blood stained cloth and numerous scars and fresh wounds marked her visible body. Despite the circumstances, she seemed calm and relaxed, taking great interest in the cloaked dark templar which surrounded her.

A few minutes earlier, he would have thought of her behavior as arrogant. The rest of the Nerazim were probably thinking the same. But there was more to it...

"Who are you?" he asked.

Dreadnuaght Nubaal, Conference Room

The table was full of charts, data plans, and various other objects. There was a nervous air around the people, as everyone was preparing for the attack. They still had a little ways to go, but Sajuuk wanted to hit the planet ready.

"Ok people, listen up. We have to retrive that artifact, and we have to do before the other merc groups. Quatermaster Karen, how are the medical supplies." Sajuuk inquired.

Karen spoke up. "Sir, I managed to salvage a handful, but there is no way in hell there will be enough for the medics. We'll have just enough for three, maybe four cases. On the other hand, the pests didn't touch the stims, so we'll have plenty of those."

"You did the best you could. Cheif Kobiaisi, has the probe given you any intel on the artifact and how to transport it?"

"No sir, it's the one thing that blasted probe hasn't talked about. I am jerry rigging the Ton Terra Truck for the duty as a result. Unless it weighs over 100,000,000 Kilos, that truck will be able to take it."

"Well done. Soban, what forces do you recomend for the assult."

"Captian, since we are for sure going against protoss and probably against other terrans, I have opted for a balanced task force: 40 marines, 10 firebats, 20 maruaders, 10 vultures, 20 reapers, and 10 siege tanks. That comes to supply amount of 170. We have enough supplies to feild 200, so I am also adding 30 scv's to keep our base up and running."

"Excellent reasoning. Once the artifact is secured, we will move the base to you to prepare the artifact for extration. I don't want to risk the arifact being stolen while we transport it back to the base. Now chances are we are faster than the other mercs, given our close proximaty to redstone and our ships increadibale speed. We need to take advantage of that fact, and get in and out of here as fast as possible. We can't risk a ship to ship fight, the Nubaal isn't desgined for that. Soban, prepare the men. Kobiaisi, ready the truck. Quatermaster, start handing out supplies. Freinds, we got a contract to fulfill. I will lead the assult personally." Wtth that, everyone left the room, preparing for their duties.

”Sparky” was quite annoyed, ever since the meeting started it had chirped for the captains attention.

Finally growing impatient it screamed out as soon as the captain finished the meeting.

“HEY **** PANTS!”

Everyone turned to look at it.

“Sorry for the delay, but my Mistress wanted to get some more data on the artefact, don’t bother with that truck it will only slow you down, it is not bigger then a grown man, as for storage, Mistress suggests a duo magnetic containment field, if you can create something like that, hard to say with the junk you call technology”

It then made a series of beeps that almost certainly was “Probe” for various insults it did not want the captain to understand

“I’ll be in the hangar when you want the blueprints for the construction, also I think I’ll stay up here until the fighting is over, if you need to interrogate someone however, just ask, I would be more then happy to help getting answers out of them Tal’Derim fellas”

It chirped some more.

“Also, no physical contact with the artefact, it is activated by touch and Mistress would not be happy if you used it, the activation works even through your suit gloves so don’t even think about it”

“Oh, and this is VERY important, be careful not to crack the exterior o the artefact, apparently the resulting chain reaction would have about the same effect as being at ground zero of a tactical nuke strike”

It then chirped again and left the bridge, in a way better mood, the artefact wouldn’t blow up if they cracked it, course they didn’t need to know that.

As for being activated by touch, Mistress had never informed it of something like that, it was just taking a wild guess, but hey, if that made it harder for them while still not making it impossible, it did not care.

“Sparky” silently thanked Khalana for not removing its ability to lie.

Chief Kobiaisi looked at that floating contraption in untter amazement and horror. "Can't touch the damn artifact with any bio skins? We'll have to use the crane. I'll prep the cargo truck for transportation. That will get in there and out in no time flat." With that, the cheif left the room.

Sajuuk looked at the probe. "Fine then, don't come along. I'll be seeing you with the artifact in a bit." Sajuuk then pressed the intercom.


"Attention, attention, this is the captian. You all know the mission. We are to enter X'ill, retreive the artifact, and do this before the other mercs. I don't need to remind you that we need this done right, or else we don't eat, but I just did. You have your orders. Men, man you battle stations, and take this ship combat alert!"

Sirens started the combat alert blare, as men rushed to there positions. In one hour, the battle would commence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nubaal hanger, 55 minutes later.

Sajuuk saluted to the troops, and boarded into his custom viking, the Peragrin Falcon. Swift, deadly, and with it's own cloaking defice the Falcon was his pride and joy. He jumped into the caucpit, and started the machine checkup.

"Alpha leader to Big Moma, all stats green. Ready to escort the "Storks" (dropships) to the DP. Stand by for liftoff."

"Alpha leader, this is Big Moma, we read you green here to. Happy hunting captian." Ensign Pressly replied.

"Launch!"

The Periagren Falcon lifted off and flew into space, flowed by a large group off dropships. Behind them were the mobile structues of the base, ready to deploy once the area was secured.

"This is strok 1 to Apha leader. We are beginning our decent. Attacking the protoss mining outpost now."

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Protoss mining out post zeta, near by the valley of acient horrors.

High Templar Sazhjin was bored. Sure mining duty was important, at least in terms of the economy, but nothing happen here. This area was so secure, they didn't even keep observers around. So when he looked up, trying to find some clouds that looked interesting to distract himself, it took him longer than usual the process the fact that terran dropships were boring down upon his position.

{Inturders! Man the cannons and prepare to repell the terran invaders. Send a probe to the executor, he must know what is going on here!}

A small probe raced for the large encampent that was guarding the way to the valley of acient horrors.

Sazhjin looked up in statisfaction as he watched the four pheonixs around begin their attack run on the lone fighter guarding the dropships. They would make short work of it, and they reign havoc among the dropships.


Sajuuk saw the four small crafts closing in on his viking, and grinned savegly. It was time to demonstrate what his baby could do. He quickly targeted the first phenox with his upgraded missles and fired. 8 missles rapidly hit the phenox, destroying before it could close the distance. Sajuuk guessed they hadn't expected his fighter to have the range that it did.

He cloaked and hovered where he was. The other fighters, shocked by this action, veered off and started looking for him. This allowed Sajuuk to line up two more targets destroying them in quick succesion. The final fighter started to flee.

"Oh no you don't." Sajuuk began to chase after him. Suddenly the Falcon rocked. He had forgotten about the cannon!



Sazhjin was worried. This new fighter had destoyed three of his craft efforetlessly. Still, the photon cannon would destroy it quickly...or so he though. But then Sazhijn watched in awe as the craft absorbed several hits and destroyed the last fighter as it swung around, thinking his opponent was destroyed.

Sazhjin was so amazed by this crafted, that he was awstruck when it landed and proceeded to destoy the cannon. He had forgotten about the dropships until some traqualized him. In his groggy state he tried to storm the army, but missed. After that, darkness fell.


Sajuuk watched the rest of his army land, and then climbed out of his viking. The armor was starting to crack, so an SCV would be needed to repair it. He went over to engineer Goben.

"Thats the second person you have tranqualized this week. Is this a new record?"

"You bet. I heard that probe wanted someone to torture, and there was that high templar all awstruck by your awsome performance. I'll bet he was a greenhorn who had never seen combat." Replied the engineer.

"Maybe. Secure him and keep him under. I don't want him waking up and storming all of us. And Goben, why do you still have tranqs on you? I could understand before we had Makan in the brig. After all, we have had to tranqualize him before. But now?"

"Well sir, I guess I just forgot to put them back." The engineer looked uncofortable.

"I guess it worked out for the best. Next time put them away, or I'll sic Karen on you for removing supplies."

"Don't do that sir!" Everyone was terrified of Karen finding out they stole something. Goben didn't like to think about what happended to the last person she caught stealing.

Soben then marched over. "Area secured Captian."

"Alright, lets get ready to assult that protoss encampanet. After that, its into the valley."

To Nedrun, the three seconds it took for this "Khanaka" to answer felt like several eternities. Awakened and intrigued, his mind was finding it hard to wait, even if only a little. Nonetheless, he did not attempt to invade the Khalai's mind. He knew that he could break the girl's defenses easily in her weakened state but her apparent willingness to talk kept him from doing so.

"I am Khanaka of the Ara Tribe" she finally answered.

The Ara Tribe. Allegedly made up of those who had been closest to Khas. Leaders of the Judicator Caste and the Conclave. Their mention sent a wave of hurried telepathic whispers through the group. Nedrun himself felt a surge of anger but managed to contain it.

"Are you a Judicator?" he asked quickly, perceiving the discontent of his fellow dark templar. There was no room for mercy in Nerazim hearts when it came to Judicators and the Conclave.

"No, I am a scientist" she answered, just as quickly. Apparently, even an absent minded and blind child like her could perceive the mood of the surrounding Nerazim. The group's anger did not recede but it did stop growing. The girl's words had managed to keep the emotion at bay... for the time being.

"How do I know that you are telling the truth?" he asked, again resisting the temptation to invade and break her mind.

"Would I be imprisoned if I were a Judicator?" she said simply.

"I would not know. The Conclave and its pet Judicators have a reputation for turning on their own kind" This sent a wave of mental laughter through the group.

"If your lot had accepted the Khala, you would have no trouble telling if I was honest or not" The laughter ended. Blades were ignited. Her tone, her insult, her language, her inheritance... they were too much for the Nerazim.

One of those closest to her uncloaked and lunged at her with his blade. He was followed by two others. Before Nedrun could do anything, the girl was facing the lethal side of three warp blades. Her own eyes widened and her nerve cords jerked, as if surprised. She made an attempt at blocking the blades with her hands but it was futile. She was dead.

Or so he thought. This time, he saw it happen. His eyes saw the dim light around the Khalai refract slightly. They saw the warp blades slow down and grow brighter, as if burning. His mind pieced together the information and saw what was really happening.

Not waiting for any more templar to attack the girl, Nedrun stepped forward, pushing the three attackers away as he did so.

"Let me guess. Or, more precisely, let me estimate. Your actions, studies and newfound skills were seen as blasphemous in the eyes of the Conclave, forcing you to flee lest you were executed. You tried fleeing past the borders of Khalai space but were captured close to or on the planet Gyras. You were then to be transported back to Aiur for trial and inevitable execution but our intervention stopped that. In other words, we saved you from certain death"

The girl shrugged.

"More heresy than blasphemy" she said "but the rest is correct. I commend your perception"

Nedrun nodded "The Void connects all" he said and then turned to the rest of the dark templar, who were too stunned by his words and behavior to do anything.

"Strip the ship of anything of value. We depart in an hour." he ordered. He then offered his hand to the Khalai. She reluctantly accepted it and was raised to her feet.

"Khanaka, was it?" he asked. She nodded. "I am Prelate Nedrun of the Lenassa Tribe, commander of the Sum'Rak Wanderers. I believe we have a lot to discuss"

And with that, the pair disappeared from the arbiter's bridge.

With the fighting over "Sparky" had been transported down to the base of operations, as soon as it exited the drop ship it immediately headed over towards

“Hey Captain Scrap Bucket, direct message from Mistress , I’ll open a comm. link now”

”Good morning, Captain Sajuuk, I hope your operations are going well so far?”

Sajuuk was about to respond with some comments about “Sparky’s” behaviour, when Khalana interrupted him.

”I am glad things are going according to plan, however I have found some information that I felt that was of the utmost importance to deliver to you before you entered the valley”

“I’m listening”

”our scouting Observer has found out why it is called; ‘The Valley of Ancient Horrors’, turns out there are life on Xil after all, rather unwelcome life, tell me, Captain, have you ever encountered a Nydus Worm?”

Once again Khalana interrupted him before Sajuuk could answer.

”It does not matter, what does matter though is that what is in that valley are worms, and not small ones either, in fact one single worm swallowed an entire squad of Tal’Derim Zealots whole, and id wager it would be able to do the same to Siege Tanks”

“If that’s the case then how in the world are we supposed to get that artefact?”

“Simple, fist of all those worms is blind, they operate by tremor sense, they sense vibrations in the ground and then dig up beneath what ever causes them in order to feed, and you can use this to your advantage”

Sajuuk nodded.

“Further more, the worms either cannot, or will not, dig through stone, and I doubt their tremor sense would work if they surface completely”

“You doubt it would work?”

”I have not seen one fully surface as of yet, and I only discovered them 24 hours ago, however, in light of this latest complication, the contract fee has gone up from 18.000 g/m to 23.000 g/m to compensate for the increased difficulty, the damage clause still apply, however”

Khalana paused so Sajuuk could absorb all the new information before continuing.

“Also you will find the only route completely covered by stone to be heavily fortified by the Tal’Derim, so it’s either taking the fast route and risk the Worms or the short route and punch your way through a gauntlet of Protoss defenders, the choice is yours, Captain”

“Transmission terminated, Zergling turd, anything I can be of assistance with?”

Sajuuk had to use every ounce of self control not to shoot “Sparky” then and there.

Worms or protoss? Worms or protoss. We have to protect the hauling truck, but who knows how far ahead the other mercs are? Can't risk losing the truck...Protoss it is. Sajuuk finished making up his mind. Besides, he had an advantage.

"Sparky, yah you. Didn't you say you wanted someone to torture? Well, we just happen to have a high templar in our grasp. Extract all the information from him about the protoss guarding the artifact. Just make sure you don't kill him, we may need him later."

Sajuuk felt this shouldn't be possible, but he would swear that the probe look absolutely delighted. "You have someone for me to torture?! Where is he, I want to get to work on him immediately!"

"We moved him away from the main camp to prevent him from storming us. He's in the outcrop over there."

The probe moved forward in what Sajuuk would later describe as giddy excitement. Sajuuk motioned Soban over.

"Ok, here's the deal. We are going to wait 2 hours for Sparky to torture the guy. Once we have all the information we can get in that time, we'll launch our assault. In the mean time, set up some defenses. I don't want us caught flat footed by the protoss or the mercs. Radio the Nubaal, and tell it to look for any sign of those mercs."

"Yes sir."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forward Base Camp hour and a half later

Those pisionic screams were really getting on Sajuuk's nerves, as well as the rest of the crew. What ever that probe was doing it was painful. Whether it would be effective would be shown later. Suddenly a vulture raced up to Sajuuk.
"Report sergeant!"

"Sir, there is a large group of protoss massing to attack. I can't get a good estimate, but I saw zealots, high templar, and others."

"Describe the others."

“Well sir, two types looked like the old dragoons. One was dark and sleek, and when I got close it teleported towards me. I had to get out of there fast. The other looked liked it had really big cannons on it. Finally, there was this hovering orb like thing. I have no idea what its function is.”

“I see. Which way are they coming from.”

“The north area, near the valley.”

“All units, move to defend the northern area.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Northern entrance, 11 minutes later

The protoss force was coming around the corner. The Vaygar Raiders had tried to find a good location, but in this desert there was very little. They had found a somewhat narrow pass near the north entrance, but that was it. Bunkers and missile turrets were in the front, with siege tanks behind them. Vultures and reapers were in the far back, ready to assist where the protoss looked to be doing the best. There weren’t enough bunkers to house every unit, so marauders were on the outside. Sajuuk was in the center point of the defenses, with his repaired Falcon ready for action.

“All right, here’s the deal. Siege tanks, if you see any high templar, pound them before they can get close enough to storm us. Marauders, focus down the new dragoons that can teleport. Firebats in bunkers, take out the zealots. Marines, forcus on those floating orbs and those heavy cannon dragoons. Vultures and reapers, help us out where we need it.”

A mighty roar began in the throats of the protoss. The assault force began barreling down upon the defenses, yelling {for Auir!}. Siege tanks began roaring back, sending molten lead down their throats. A few protoss were vaporized immediately. The assault dragoons, on the other hand, shrugged off the attacks without a second thought.

Suddenly the zealots were among the bunkers and marauders, charging in among the defenders with amazing speed. Firebats spread their napalm around, burning a few of the marauders as well. The scout dragoons teleported among the marauders, but were being taken care of by the very units they sought to destroy. The marines were firing on the orbs, but they were putting up some kind of shield, protecting the main assault dragoons.

“Reapers, engage the zealots! They are cutting through our men like meat!”

“On it man, we be taken a’care of them.” The reapers rushed into the wild melee, their twin pistols firing at the zealots. The enemy forward ranks began to wither, but the assault dragoons pressed on, despite the siege tanks now pummeling them. (There had been three high templar in the back, and the tanks had easily smashed them.) The assault dragoons had come in range, and were pummeling the bunkers, several destroying some of the bunkers before the marines and firebats could get out.

“All units, concentrate on those assault dragoons. Vultures, engage your targets at will. Siege tanks, hit those floating orbs and bring down their shields!”

Sajuuk’s men hastened to comply. With the tanks firing on the floating orbs, the shield soon fell. The assault dragoons began to wither under the concentrated fire. They began pulling back. Some vultures tried to peruse, but the remaining orbs put up some sort of barrier, which the vultures crashed into. With that, the protoss withdrew.

“Commander Soban, reorganize the troops to attack. I am going to have a little talk with Sparky.”

“Yes sir.”

"Brunette or Blonde?" Sparrow asked.

"Blonde. Dibs as well." Swallow answered.

Sparrow then leaned over to the two yet again sleeping immobilized women.

"Either of you two ladies give up?"

"Whu...?" The brunette said, took a few seconds to realize what was going on, remembered she was in a fight, and started pulling at the blonde's hair, which wasn't hard since she was practically tied up in it.

"This is gonna take forever." Sparrow said as Doom walked into the cafeteria, and Kosh from another end. Waiter quickly followed.

"Anyone win yet?" The 8 foot proffesional drinker asked.

"Nah." Swallow answered. "Need's more rum I think."

"Well they ain't gettin' any o' mine." Doom answered. "Kosh, whatcha got?"

"A few possible buyers for our resources, and I set up a meeting with that doctor dude. Also, Katy knows you're here."

"Katy, my ex that tried to stab me?" Doom said, a bit surprised.

"Nah, I think it's tha one that started tha mutiny."

"I think it was more of a women pirate's right kinda thing." Sparrow said.

"Wait, that's what it was about?" Swallow said. "I thought they were complaining about bad working conditions and lower pay than the rest of the crew."

Sparrow shot him the look.

"Oh, right." Swallow said.

"Well, Captains, you handle our sales, willya? Take Charles if you need him, Sticks'n'stones might be useful there as well. Kosh, take Kenny and take care of my ex and make sure the other ones don't find me. Waiter and I'll go talk to the doctor."

"DIE *****!" One of the girls yelled as she yanked out a bushel of hair from the other one.

"Ok, I guess they do need rum." Doom said.

If Sajuuk could see “Sparky” now he would not have recognized it as the Probe.

The seemingly normal probe had a variety of ways it could torture things, right now it had shifted the exterior plating around, reforming it into what could best be described as a golden wizard’s cap, which had attached itself to the templar’s head.

This was “Sparkys favourite way of torture, right now it as using its own psionic power source to cause psionic visions of such horrible proportions just viewing them was enough to inflict physical pain.

“Sparky” had been programmed to find the deepest nightmares of it’s victims through trial and error and it had just homed in on the templar’s hidden fears.

Right now the templar was viewing a vision where he was being slowly dissected alive by Dark Templar scientists in order to find a way to attack their brethren through the Khala, it was amusing that this templar fared its own brethren so, but when it thought about the info it had on the creation of the Tal’Derim it quickly realized the answer.

“Well then Khalite, ready to answer our questions, or should I continue to play?”

”I... will... NEVER... give.... in”

“You would be surprised what you would do once your mind has been through this grinder for a few days, and in difference from a normal torturer, I do not tire nor grow frustrated, I am simply following my programming and enjoying EVERY second of it”

“Sparky” quickly blipped happily as it changed the vision from living dissection to one of its favourite scenarios, Protoss Infestation, few Protoss remained unwilling to talk for long after some time with that running through their head.

After another few minutes it stopped again.

“Well ready to talk yet?”

”NEVER”

“Sparky” was a tad perplexed, usually most Protoss would be begging to talk after just a few minutes, only a fanatical zealot would-.

Then it hit him, the Tal’Derim WAS fanatical, fanatical in their hatred and fear of the Dark Templar.

“Sparky” started to blip in joy when it thought about the terror it was about to inflict.

“Well then, let’s see how you like THIS”
“Sparky had to give the Templar his props, he held out for nearly 20 minutes, but then he cracked.

[i]”MAKE IT STOP; MAKE IT STOP; I’LL TALK, I’LL TALK”[/]

“Excellent, now then what do you-“

“Hey, Sparky! How’s the interrogation going?”

“Sparky” quickly dislodged itself from the templar’s head, the templar was too exhausted both physically and mentally, to be a threat anyhow.

“Ah, Captain Sajuuk, you are just in time, the prisoner has agreed to talk!”

Forward base camp, interegation outcrop.

Sajuuk walked over to the probe. It was definatly different from what he had expected.

Sajuuk grinned savagely. "I heard him begging to stop. You did well. So, about the defenses for the artifact in the Valley of Acient Horrors...."

The protoss high templar looked pained. It seemed to hurt him just as much to relenquish the information as the torture did. {Very......Well} Each word came out like the templar was winded, and trying to gain breath. {The..defenses are...split into three...sections}.

{The path is 3 kilomoters long, and divedied into three sections. At each section there is a checkpoint, each which also leads to the valley of the worms. The first section is guarded by sentries, zealots.... and dragoons. The sentries will trap your forces while the dragoons blink in... for the kill. The zealots will rush in among you The second section is guarded by archons and high templar. The archons will hold you at bay, while the templar strom you. Finally, the third section is guarded by immortals and collosi. The colossi will burn you while the immortals destroy your equipment. You will not make it to the artifact. And even if you did, your taking of it will alert the guards on the other path. Do you seriously think you will be able to protect the artifact all the way back to your base?} The last words ended in a kind of cough.

"I think we will do just fine. Sparky, I leave him your....care. If you find out anything else that is useful, contact me on this comn link. However, I still want him alive. We are moving out."

Deep underneath the surface of Xil, a presence moved among the dormant Zerg Hives. The zerg had been here for years, ever since the death of the overmind, and had buried themselves when it's death had heralded the madness. Only a few terrors still lurked, in a few dark corners of the planet. But now, a presence moved among them, and they were given new purpose, new direction, new will. They would act to claim the lost relic, for the glory of their new master.

The Zokolo was full as ever with the usual band of trader's, mercenaries, pirates and thieves; all just trying to conduct the business of their professions; so when a cold-blooded Nerazim and an 8 foot tall troll of a man with an eye-patch walk into the bar, no one even glanced at them, that would be rude. The two individuals quickly located their drinking partner and took their seats, and drinks, across the table.

"Docter Straczinzki?"

"That is me, Captain Bonecrusher?"

"It's Cap'n."

"That seems an odd distinction to make; is there a story behind it?"

"Aye," Doom stated after draining his mug in one draw. He quickly raised an eyebrow, asking silently if more drinks would be paid for. The Dr, slid a five credit piece across the table and motioned for the Cap'n to get it for himself. There would be no service in this establishment. Doom pocketed the coin but did not get up, instead sliding Waiter's untouched mug over to himself. This caused the Doctor to smirk, which then caused the Pirate to think a bit harder then he usually liked. Did he just loose something in that exchange? No, he was definitely five credits richer and two mugs drunker.

"Business then?" The doctor inquired before Doom strained himself.

"Aye, business. Word is that you be looking for disreputable foke for some disreputable jobs. My crew is as disreputable as they come and we enjoy being disreputable when coin is involved."

"Good, then this will be simple for you. You are, of course, aware of the Dylarian shipyards?"

"Of course, who ain't."

"The conditions required to create Neosteele frames and plates of the size needed for Behemoth class battlecruisers are extremely precise. I would like to hear in the news, within a week or two, that those conditions were not properly adhered to, and a horrible accident occurred. Bonus points for making it seem as if the Dominion's sloppy safety practices are to blame. Even more bonus points if you manage to keep UNNs attention on it for an extended story."

"Well, such accidents don't come cheap. People are remarkably difficult to bribe when their lives are in danger, and we are talking about one of the most active military ports in Dominion space. I hope you got money to put where your mouth is."

"I do, here are the figures."

Doom tried not to drop his poker face in shock as he looked over the numbers. That was a lot more then the Cap'n figured this scruffy individual could afford. He carefully refolded the paper and then smirked, "That seems awfully low for this sorta job, too much **** that could go wrong. There any chance of you payin' damages?"

"If you do well, that can be discussed. This is an entry level job, Cap'n," The doctor said the title with an odd distinction, "I don't expect you to get yourself killed over it, your reputation speaks otherwise."

"Yeah, and if we do well on this one, what then? You got more jobs where this came from?"

"The Dominion has made quite a few enemies, and crime can be a lucrative business."

"There doesn't seem anything lucrative to me in creating a big mess."

"Captain, I am not here to explain the motives of my employers, only to see that what they want done, gets done. Do we understand each other?"

"It's Cap'n."

"Very well, 'Cap'n', do we have a deal?"

Stone path of the Guadians, first sector.

The maruaders and tanks andvanced in the front. "They should be more than capable of taking out of the first defense", thought Sajuuk. He was scouting ahead in the Perigrin Falcon, above the defenses. He had spotted the first defenses. The floating orbs, no sentires, were attack the first checkpoint. Sajuuk had seen some of the other dragoons, as well as the zealots. All in all there were about 30 enemies.

"Ok, your in range. Siege up and take out those zealots!" The siege tanks hastened to obey, and soon lead rained down among the defenders. A few zealots and dragoons managaged to get close, but were anahilated by the maruaders and reapers. Sajuuk barely lost a marine.

"Excellent work, thats all of them. Move out."

"Yes SIR!" One of the siege tanker's sceamed back at them. Sajuuk winced, he had forgotten how near deaf the drivers were.

Sajuuk cloaked again and headed towards the second checkpoint. He soon spotted it, full of archons and high templar. This was going to be harder.

Again the siege tanks got barely in range. The first open shots did little, and the archons began charging towards the lines.

"Siege tanks, focus on the High Templar, we can't let them storm our army!" The seige tanks attempted to comply, but one High Templar got off a storm, frying a group of marines. Then the archons were among his men.

It quickly became choas. Although there were only five archons, they were doing increadible damage to the reapers and marines. "Stim up!" The soldiers hastened to comply. The incease in firing was increadible, and the archons eventually withered under the unending assult. The mariens had taken heavy losses, and all infantry were starting to feel the side-affects of the stims.

The task force pushed on, the hauling truck in the rear. Once again, Sajuuk cloaked and went out to scout. He knew imeadatly when he had found the third checkpoint.

Towering above the canyon were the immense Collosi. There were three in total, and they stood majestically proud. Sajuuk was so awed that it took him a little while to notice his craft was automatically locking on and requesting permision to fire.

At first Sajuuk thought it was an error in the calibrating system. Most fighter planes were programed so that objects lower than 100m were not classifed as targets. This had been done dut to the many deaths cause by pilots not pulling out of a dive fast enough while straffing ground targets. Sajuuk quickly realized that the collosi were litterally that tall.

"All forces, hold your position. I will deal with these collosi myself."

"Cofirmed."

Sajuuk roared in, missles firing. It took a while, but eventually the mighty collosi fell. Sajuuk marvaled at either amazing bravery or stupidity, for the collosi held their ground against the invisible arireal attacker.

The same tatic was used against the remaining immortals. Despite the heavy fire that hit the immortals, several got in range and managed to take down a few seige tanks and vultures.

"Keep pressing! We are about to reach the artifact." Sajuuk could see the shrine ahead. Soon his forces arived.

The artificat was green hue, with pruple outlines. It was roughly spherical, with the pruple lines creating a sort of wavy sea.

Chief Kobiaisi pulled the truck up next to the artifact. The crane was lowered, and picked up the artifact, and lowered onto the back of the truck.

Sajuuk radioed the Nubaal. "Alpha Leader to Moma Bird, package is secure, moving back to base."

"Ah, I am afraid that's a negatory, Alpha Leader. We have spotted a large group of protoss teleporting behind you on the path you just cleared, as well as a large protoss attack force marshalling to attack from the front. To top it all of, we are suddenly tracking large movements of zerg all across the surface. You are going to have to deal with the worms."

Sajuuk had one word. "Shit!"